How strong is BharatMatrimony’s case against Google and competitors?
24 September, 2009
by Satrajit Sen
Consim Info, which owns matrimony portal BharatMatrimony.com, recently filed a trademark infringement case against the internet search company Google and three other matrimony portals Jeevansathi.com, Shaadi.com and SimplyMarry.com in the Madras High Court. The court while hearing the case ex parte, gave an interim injunction to Consim. In the light of this case, AlooTechie tried to talk with some experts and see how they view the development.
According to Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and CEO, Consim Info, there are two reasons why the group has sued Google, and competitors Shaadi.com, Jeevansathi.com and SimplyMarry.com. “Firstly, we filed the case seeking prevention of competitive advertising on Google. People searching for our trademarks know what they are searching for, and Google is the entry point for our sites. And hence the users should not be shown ads of other similar websites. Secondly, we have asked Google to stop allowing our competitors using our trademarked keywords as headings. For example, if someone searches for ‘Tamil Bride’, which is a generic keyword, competitors use our trademarks (Tamil Matrimony) as headings in Google AdWords, which linkback to their websites,” Janakiraman told AlooTechie.
Following the Consim Vs Google case, AlooTechie tried to explore if the practice of showing competitors’ ads when one is searching for a brand name on Google, is happening only in the online matrimony space or in other verticals as well and found that there are similar cases happening with even offline brands such as Adidas, Dell and Max New York Life. For instance, a search for Adidas, Puma or Reebok on Google shows advertisements from Nike, while a search for LIC shows up ads from Max New York Life and Aegon Religare. Similarly, a search for HP leads us to ads from Dell and a search for Dell shows ads from Samsung. Looking into the online real estate space, we found that a search for 99acres shows ads from MagicBricks.
Clearly, this appears to be a common problem across the verticals and categories and is not only confined to the online matrimony space or even online space. Hence, we caught up with Mahesh Murthy, founder and CEO, Pinstorm, to know more about the practice of using a competitor’s registered trademark to advertise one’s products and services online.
According to Murthy, Google already has a rule in place which says that if a company can show the proof of its registered trademarks to Google, no one else would be allowed to advertise using these keywords. “For example, words like Jet and Microsoft are registered keywords for Jet Airways and Microsoft Corporation and Google doesn’t allow any other advertisements around the same search keyword. Now, in India, if a company fails to show the proof of its registered keywords, Google allows competitors’ ads to appear on search results, but restricts usage of the keywords in the copy of the ads,” said Murthy.
Speaking on whether BharatMatrimony is right in asking Google to stop competitors from using its keywords as ad headlines, Murthy said, “As claimed by Consim, ‘TamilMatrimony’ (without a space) is a registered keyword of the group. So, it appears that the group owns a combination of two generic words Tamil and Matrimony. Now, the competitors are using Tamil Matrimony as two separate generic keywords in their ad copies and hence BharatMatrimony can’t claim that these two separate generic terms are their registered keywords,” he added.
Agreeing with Mahesh Murthy, Pavan Duggal, advocate, Supreme Court of India, said that the usage of two generic terms separately in the search ads cannot be considered as a registered trademark infringement as BharatMatrimony just owns a joined version of the two generic terms. According to Duggal, depending on usage patterns, even a generic word can be registered as a keyword and once the trademark is registered the party has the legitimacy to ask search engines to protect the usage of that particular keyword by competitive properties in search results.
Describing the complaints made by BharatMatrimony as meaningless, Mahesh Murthy said that the group itself can be held guilty for a similar practice. “Though the Madras High Court has given an interim injunction, this is a wrong judgement and the decision should be challenged or else Jet Airways will tomorrow say that ‘Airways’ is their registered keyword and they want other airlines to stop advertising around that keyword,” said Murthy. He further suggested Google to stop using different policies in different countries and to make a standard keyword advertising policy across the world.
Commenting on the Consim Info Vs Google case, Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert, further said that the existing provisions of Indian cyber laws are being tested by the new challenges of this growing medium. “However, in this case where there is an Indian dispute, between Indian parties and in an Indian court, the enforceability of the law in favour of BharatMatrimony is something which is expected,” said Duggal.
When asked why Consim focused its trademark infringement case on the group’s matrimonial competitors, Janakiraman said that though the problem persists across categories and verticals, they have decided to go for BharatMatrimony as it is the company’s premiere and well-known brand. He further said that the company had earlier contacted Google on the same but did not get a good response and hence had to move to court.
Responding to the case filed by Consim Info, a Google India spokesperson has said, “We have received the court papers and are in the process of reviewing those. We believe that our policies are in compliance with the mandate of trademark law and we will defend our position on that basis. We also believe that consumers are smart and are not confused when they see a variety of ads displayed in response to their search queries. We will not be able to go into further details of the case, since the matter is sub judice.”
Google have complete rights to allow other advertisers to bid on generic terms until they receive trademark compliants. Bharat Matrimony regularly bids on “jeevansathi” and “shaadi” keywords in India
I think Internet should be free for all and anyone should be free to do for consumers looking for fresh and new content. I believe this step by bharat matrimony is a desperate one to stop other advertisers to cannibalize their market share.
Google has recently changed it's policy on showing ads for brand names. Google now allows you to run PPC ads on any brand name. However I think there are some restrictions on the use of brand name in the ad copy.
The rule/policy on Google Adwords is that no third-party can use the registered Trademark in Ad Copies and that too only if the trademark owner objects. And it is totally alright if you want to include trademark as a keyword in your ad groups.
So it is diligent if you search for HP and DELL ads come up however the DELL Ads should not feature "HP" or "Hewlett Packard" in the ad copy.
It’s purely Marketing Strategy. Google have complete rights to allow other advertisers to bid on generic terms until they receive trademark compliant. Bharat Matrimony is currently bidding on “jeevansathi” and “shaadi” keywords in Indian market and Jeevansathi.com and Shaadi.com keywords in International markets. And also, Shaadi.com is bidding on BharatMatrimony.com and Bharatmatrimony keywords in Indian markets. These all are silly things to get publicity.
After reading few comments above and doing some research on Pinstorm it clearly indicates that companies like Pinstorm are the key culprits in this and this is highly dangerous for Google's reputation in India. I am surprised that Pinstorm CEO is interviewed here and he is not taking this seriously. This is a Shame on on entire SEM industry and on Pinstorm.
Kudos to BharatMatrimony for taking this battle to the law, I do hope they win.
It's no surprise that Mahesh Murthy would oppose Bharatmatrimony's stsnd, as his company Pinstorm does exactly what's being alleged..It's called in sophisticated language "search engine optimisation"..wherein the potential search results are manipulated to give a false impression of the importance of any website.
Its purely Marketing Startegy .
First of all, I respect the judgments of the Madras High Court and don't raise a question against that, but still I would like to suggest something to BharatMatrimony.com.
>> Trademark infringement is really a complex issues and as far as the PPC advertising in Google or other search engines are concerned Google has their own policies for that. Google considers a Trademark valid only if the party can show the documents of the registration of the trademark. Marley registering TamilMatrimony.com domain, you can't say that is your trademark. If BharatMatrimony.com had registered the domain and then get the registration from the Trademark authority then Google can do something.
>> Again, BhratMatrimony owns "TamilMatrimony" and it doesn't mean it prevent other from using the generic keywords like "Tamil Matrimony" as stated in the case of "Jet Airways".
>> Let me refer a case of Google V/s Louis Vuitton. The case is available at http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article6844086.ece.
The judgment was that Google had not violated and Trademark Law. If Google allow its advertisers to use the Generic Keywords or even the searchers search a keyword like "Tamil" and websites with "Tamil Matrimony" titles are displayed, that is not the infringement of the Trademark law.
Still lets see what happens to BharatMatrimony.... As said by Mr.Pavan Duggal, Cyber Law in India has a long way to go.
Yogendra Oza
http://yogendraoza.blogspot.com
The court ruling is more technical than logical. The word matrimony used for portals but the company which used it in their brand was Bharat Matrimony."Tamil Matrimony" or "tamilmatrimony" was promoted by Bharat matrimony. The end user would definitely type this key word to find this site. If the other companies want to promote their brand, they should drive keywords/ subsites like "tamil shaadi" or "Tamil marry".
the other websites are taking an easy drive using bharat matrimony branding using certain loopholes .
Boss
It is so obvious that there is no merit in the case. It is a pure play marketing gimmick. But good one, I must say.
- Guest
I am not in the favour of the justic given to BharatMatrimony because when a keyword like Ipod or a Iphone cannot be used in the ad copy in any format. How can the court decide that Tamil and Matrimony are 2 generic word. In the case of Ipod or a Iphone even this contains two generic terms such as I and Pod or I and Phone. I am not blaming the competitors using those terms because its their business strategy to drive the opponents customer. Here the culprit is Google whos is trying to make money both the ways. Allowing the competitors to bid on brand term and making the brand term costly for BharatMatrimony. Its the common tactic used by Google in all the countries they serve. When we ask about this a new policy is shown and the Adword user will be confused by it. So BharatMatrimony appeal to the higher court and get componsation from Google.....All the Best!!!!
Feel so bad about BharatMatrimony... They dont feel that this is a competition world. Or they really realize that , their site is not doing good. Or they think that this is a way or marketing... then it too bad... and its their time to change the marketing tips...
this is all BS ... and cheap marketing techniques .... media as usual will take it up and give more mileage than it deserves and they gain free news and publicity ....
It would be good if everyone concentrates on the business. These all are silly things.
hhmm....lets see how the honorable court will proceed with the hearing? There is a news that IndiaPropeties.com sued IndiaPrprty.com (a consim vertical) for using similar sounding name (its a matter of singular and plural) and Consim argued that a generic name like India and Property can be restrictive and no one can own it. Against this backdrop, how the case will be argued will be interesting to watch. A brand can become generic but how a generic will become a brand and hence trademark will be questionable. Both Tamil and Matrimony are generics together or alone....and hence it will be good to observe future course of action!
The interim injunction given by Madras High Court is not a wrong judgement.
Jet Airways will not say tomorrow that ‘Airways’ is their registered keyword and they want other airlines to stop advertising around that keyword, because they know the difference between ‘Airways’ & 'Jet Airways' and also it is a part of its registered keyword. Consim's complaint is not for the part of its keyword(Matrimony), for the whole word 'BharatMatrimony'
@India: Agree with you that Consim's complaint is not for the part of its keyword(Matrimony), for the whole word 'BharatMatrimony.. but if any one uses Bharat and Matrimony(without a space) as keywords, then it is not a violation of the law. This is even stated clearly by both the experts and BM is apparantly against this.
well...Consumers are not confused they know well that what is ads or what is not.
If consumers are not confused, then why Google is trying to do it?
another gimmick to gain marketing mileage...
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